Customizer: Browse, Install, Preview Themes on Mobile

I tested the patch proposed on #37661 on Windows Phone 10 with the Edge browser. Here’s a visual record of that experience:

The biggest potential fixes I found were to show a loading indicator in the filters (next to the theme count button in the headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes.?) when a new filter is loading, and to scroll the themes container to the top whenever a new section is opened or a search/filter is changed (which should be happening, but isn’t).

I should also note that since it is impossible to reorder images in galleries with Chrome on laptops that support touch, see #31652, I had to go to the text editor to fix one that jumped out of order when creating this post.

#customize, #customizer, #edge, #phone, #shiny-updates, #visual-record, #windows-phone

Customizer, Preview: Visual survey of customizer device preview

Screenshots from my testing sessions for #31195 and #35875.

Macnchrome, sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. expanded

Macnchrome, sidebar collapsed

Macnfirefox, sidebar expanded

Macnfirefox, sidebar collapsed

 

Tablets and phones don’t have device preview.

iPad Air

iPhone 6+

iPhone 5

Nexus 5

#31195, #35875, #android, #chrome, #customize, #customizer, #desktop, #ios, #macos, #phablet, #phone, #preview, #safari, #visual-survey

Customize: preview site responsiveness, Macnchrome, iPad Air, iPhone 6+

A brief visual surveyVisual survey A visual survey is a collection of screenshots for a like set of screens or interfaces, such as all list table screens or all toolbar incarnations across various devices. These screens are not presented in the context of a particular flow.https://make.wordpress.org/test/tag/visual-survey/ for #31195 with WP 4.4-alpha-33848 and Customizer UI Experiments 0.1.

#4-4, #alpha, #chrome, #customize, #customizer, #customizer-ui-experiments, #desktop, #feature-plugin, #feature-preview-responsiveness, #ios, #macos, #phablet, #preview, #responsive, #tablet, #visual-survey

Menus in the Admin and the Customizer: UX Flow & Performance Comparisons

For this post I’ve prepared a series of short gifs depicting the flows for various small menus tasks. Each task was completed using the admin, then the CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings., attempting to be as equitable as possible with interaction speed, initial mouse position, etc. to make side-by-side comparisons that realistically compare the speed with which tasks can be completed in either interface.

For the tests, I added links to both Menus UIs to the admin bar (4.3 will have one link here, to the Customizer). I ran into a few areas where the experience could be improved, but in terms of timing, the Customizer version wins in most of these scenarios currently. Note that this is intended to compare the experience for power users. I recommend opening the videos to view them larger, as the space is fairly restricted here.

Menus Admin Screen Menu Customizer

Front page -> Menus -> open the menu set to the primary location (admin).

Front page -> Menus -> open the menu set to the primary location (admin).

Front page -> Menus -> open the menu set to the primary location (Customizer).

Front page -> Menus -> open the menu set to the primary location (Customizer).

Front page -> menus -> social menu (admin).

Front page -> menus -> social menu (admin).

Front page -> menus -> social menu (Customizer).

Front page -> menus -> social menu (Customizer).

Front page -> menus -> "everything" menu with 350 items (admin).

Front page -> menus -> “everything” menu with 350 items (admin).

Front page -> menus -> "everything" menu with 350 items (Customizer)

Front page -> menus -> “everything” menu with 350 items (Customizer)

Front -> create new menu, add home link, set to primary location (admin).

Front -> create new menu, add home link, set to primary location (admin).

Front -> create new menu, add home link, set to primary location (Customizer).

Front -> create new menu, add home link, set to primary location (Customizer).

Front page -> add five latest posts to menu (admin.

Front page -> add five latest posts to menu (admin.

Front page -> add five latest posts to menu (Customizer).

Front page -> add five latest posts to menu (Customizer).

Front page -> add the "Audio" tag and the five audio-related posts as children (admin).

Front page -> add the “Audio” tag and the five audio-related posts as children (admin).

Front page -> add the "Audio" tag and the five audio-related posts as children (admin).

Front page -> add the “Audio” tag and the five audio-related posts as children (Customize).

Front page -> delete the six items that were just added (admin).

Front page -> delete the six items that were just added (admin).

Front page -> delete the 6 items that were just added (Customizer).

Front page -> delete the 6 items that were just added (Customizer).

Switch from viewing one menu to the social menu (admin).

Switch from viewing one menu to the social menu (admin).

Switch from editing one menu to the social menu (Customizer).

Switch from editing one menu to the social menu (Customizer).

Add sub-menu hierarchy to the everything menu with 350 items (admin).

Add sub-menu hierarchy to the everything menu with 350 items (admin).

Add sub-menu hierarchy to the everything menu with 350 items (Customizer).

Add sub-menu hierarchy to the everything menu with 350 items (Customizer).

Fully nest the social menu - 10 levels deep (admin).

Fully nest the social menu – 10 levels deep (admin).

Fully nest the social menu - 10 levels deep (Customizer).

Fully nest the social menu – 10 levels deep (Customizer).

Open an item's original link (admin).

Open an item’s original link (admin).

Open an item's original link (Customizer).

Open an item’s original link (Customizer).

Make every link in the social menu open in a new tab (admin).

Make every link in the social menu open in a new tab (admin).

Make ever link in the social menu open in a new tab (Customizer).

Make every link in the social menu open in a new tab (Customizer).

#customize, #customizer, #flow-comparison, #menu-customizer, #menus, #parity, #parity-check, #visual-compariosn

Customize, Menus: Menu customizer, iPhone 6+

CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. 4.3-alpha-32689 and Menu CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party 0.5-20150604.

#32733, #customize, #customizer, #ios, #keyboard-flyup, #menus, #phablet, #visual-record

Menus (admin) with Windows Phone on 4.2

  • WordPress 4.2.2
  • Old menus admin screen (to be compared with Menu CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings.)
  • Windows Phone 8.1, IE11 Mobile (only browser allowed on this device)
  • Testing on an actual site whose menu I actually needed to make a couple edits to… because why not 🙂

#4-2, #customize, #customizer, #flow-comparison, #menus, #mobile, #phone, #visual-comparison, #winphone

Testing Menus in the Customizer

  • WordPress 4.3-alpha-32600
  • Menu Customizer 0.4-20150525 (a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. feature-pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party candidate)
  • Safari iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. 8.3 on iPhone 6

Observations

Note: this feature is still in development so there are some known issues (which I’m sure I’ve hit here).

  • Blocker: tapping “+ Add Link” in a new menu resulted in a phantom UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. (looks like it doesn’t move over into view like it should?).
  • The “+ Add a Menu” button is hard to spot on mobile if you have several menus saved already.
  • The “+ Add a Menu” button is sits really close to the bottom menu bar in Safari on iOS. Some space below it could help make it a bigger tap target.
  • After tapping the “Reorder” link, I was surprised I could still tap and hold to drag menu items.
  • Scrolling is really hard on iOS, especially with the menu items being so wide on a small device screen.

#customize, #customizer, #ios, #menus, #phone

Adding a widget via the customizer, iPad Air, landscape

4.2-beta4-32130, iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. 8.3, and Jetpack 3.4.1

#customize, #customizer, #mobile, #tablet, #widgets